A ROYAL Mail worker was crowned top of the Youtube Christmas charts with videos featuring the Pope and a skidding car.

Mike Gallagher, of Hightown, Wrexham, was Number 1 in the UK on Boxing Day, beating the likes of the BBC and ITV on the global video website giant.

And the dad of two believes it was his quick snap in getting the video of an attack on the Pope on Christmas Eve that brought in viewers in their thousands to his channel.

That was beaten days later by a video of a car skidding which he set to the classical music of Bolero popularised by skaters Torville and Dean.

Mike, who has been a Royal Mail worker for 20 years, said it showed the power of the internet to give local people a truly global audience.

“I had rejoined Youtube on November 25 and had somehow managed to engineer myself into the top spot on Boxing Day.

“I videoed the attack on the Pope at the Christmas mass and immediately uploaded it to Youtube.

“By Boxing Day it been watched by more than 80,000 people and that pushed me up to the number one spot in the UK and number 40 globally.

“But even that was beaten by a car skidding. It was filmed by somebody else in Paighton, Devon.

“I asked them if I could use it, and put it to the music. That had 122,000 views.

“My total viewing figures stand at 546,744.

“For a self taught amateur working with basic equipment from my bedroom in Hightown Wrexham, to breeze past the multi-million pound big boys like the BBC, ITV, CNN etc within 36 days to the top spot feels great.

“I get people following my channel from all over the world. It shows even someone like me can get a global audience.”

It is not the only taste of success Mike, who now has 120 videos of all sorts on Youtube, has had this year.

In October he came second in the Denbigh Film Festival Open Category section with his 10 minute short “A Cam for all Seasons” video diary of local team The Venture FC.